Clarimonde by Theophile Gautier Fiction Classics Fantasy Fairy Tales Folk Tales Legends & Mythology

From that night my nature seemed to have become halved -- and there were two men within me neither of whom knew the other. At one moment I believed myself a priest who dreamed nightly that he was a gentleman -- at another that I was a gentleman who dreamed he was a priest. I could no longer distinguish the dream from the reality nor could I discover where the reality began or where ended the dream! By day he was a priest of the Lord occupied with prayer and sacred things . . . by night a young nobleman a fine connoisseur of women dogs and horses -- gambling drinking and blaspheming! Never gaze upon a woman! Walk abroad with eyes ever fixed upon the ground says the priest for however chaste and watchful one may be the error of a single moment is enough to make one lose eternity!